If you’ve seen any Hollywood sporting movie, you’ve seen a shot of a guy in the stands chomping on a hotdog. Personally, I’d rather eat the match day programme, with a little mustard. Hot dogs have always struck me as tasteless.

But on my way to the United States, on a visit to the Midwest organised by the US State Department, I got chatting to an American gentleman at Heathrow.

When he learned that my first stop was Chicago, he said: “Be sure you try Nathan’s hot dogs. They’re the best.”

Nathan's hot dogs - a pedigree brand (Image: Keith Rossiter)

My American friend wasn’t alone in his opinion. At the annual show of the National Restaurant Association in Chicago, the Nathan’s stand was besieged by a queue of people wanting a sample.

We always say, don’t we, that whatever happens in the United States comes to Britain after a few years. Not so with Nathan’s. The man from the company told me, with sad eyes, that “our founder died 75 years ago”.

But the hot dogs have finally reached our shores, with the first franchises opening in Southampton, followed by Bournemouth later in the year.

The reconstituted meat sausages to be sold in the UK are made to a “secret recipe” (aren’t they always) at a factory in Germany, apparently because of trade restrictions we have imposed. Nathan’s are hoping for a post-Brexit deal that will see their sausages made in the UK.

If you like hotdogs, you’ll love these – meatier than we’re used to and with more flavour. I prefer a burger.

A beefless burger (Image: Keith Rossiter)

With the fuss generated by the EU’s ruling that veggie burgers can’t be called burgers, I was keen to try the Impossible burger.

These plant-based patties look like meat and taste like meat – at least to start with. After a while that giveaway chlorophyll taste comes through quite subtly, and I wasn’t entirely crazy about the after taste.

Certainly, I wouldn’t turn my nose up at them. But I have a question that vegetarians might be able to answer: If you don’t like meat, why would you want your food to taste of meat? Just asking.

On another stand, Angie Yu was frying up sausages. Fish sausages. Asian carp, to be precise.

Dine in with these supermarket deals

Whether it was for a lazy mid-week dinner, a romantic Friday night in or a special weekend treat, a meal deal is a great way to save on effort and time.

Asda

The store is currently running a family meal deal for £5 and you can choose from a main, a side and dessert - which includes beef lasagne, cottage pie or chicken and chorizo alfredo, sides of broccoli and cauliflower cheese, peas and carrots or 3 garlic baguettes and desserts of chocolate gateau, apple crumble or strawberry cheesecake.

Morrisons

Lidl

The store doesn't have specific meal deals, but you can still pick up a main and dessert for less than £10, and even get a side or a drink to go with it.

Its Deluxe range includes Italian and Indian ready meals as well as pork ribs, lamb and pizza and desserts include tarts, cheesecakes and hand made cakes.

These fish are an invasive species which were introduced to America in the 1970s.

Americans don’t generally eat the carp – and neither, apparently, does anything else on the mighty Mississippi River. As a result they are out of control.

Angie, president of Two Rivers Fisheries in Kentucky (the other river is the Ohio), buys from local fishermen and ships them off, frozen, to countries where carp are traditionally eaten – not only the Far East but Poland.

She is also developing a range of fish-based recipes, such as those sausages. I’ve had worse; I’ve had better.

Valerie Samutin's heritage lamb ham (Image: Keith Rossiter)

Our sheep farmers could do worse than look up Valerie Sumutin from Freedom Run Farm in Smithfield, Kentucky. Valerie – not only the company boss but a shepherd herself – makes delicious “lamb ham”, not a million miles in flavour from Serrano ham, but perhaps a little less fat.

From salsa to sausages, waffles to pork, all of America’s eating habits – past, present and future – were on show. I came away feeling slightly queasy after piling too many flavours on top of each other.

The Americans are keen to dispel what they say are myths about their food.

Americans are much more laid-back about genetically modified food than we are in Europe, so I’m almost certain to have eaten something that was bred in a laboratory. So far, at least, I haven’t sprouted an extra head.

When someone at the show offered me a piece of chicken – possibly chlorine washed – Dear Reader, I made my excuses and left.

TOMORROW: My biggest beef about American beef

Dean Compart's prime pork (Image: Keith Rossiter)

Playing chicken

Much attention in the UK has been focused on the fact that some chicken is washed in chlorine, but US agriculture officials insisted that the proportion treated in this way is only about 25% and falling.

American chicken processors are switching to other methods, including an acetic acid wash – also banned in the EU.

Caroline Normand, Which? director of policy, said: “The problem with chlorinated chicken and similar treatments is that they are too often used as a desperate attempt to make up for widespread safety problems in the US food production process, which can leave bacteria like salmonella to run rampant.

“These lax standards are one of the reasons why the rate of people suffering from foodborne disease in the US is around 10 times higher than in Britain - and why British consumers are united in their opposition to lowering food standards as part of any future trade deal.

“Brexit is an opportunity to design a joined up food and farming policy that ensures food is produced to the highest standards – the nation’s health needs must not be used as a bargaining chip that could be given away to facilitate trade.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that around one in six Americans (around 48 million people) suffer from foodborne diseases every year. The equivalent figure in Britain is around one in 60 – one million cases a year according to the Food Standards Agency’s estimate.

During our visit to the American Midwest we saw beef, dairy and arable farming but a visit to a chicken operation was cancelled.